Friday, 1 June 2012

Quiet Time or Guilt Time

The other day there was a sale on at the local
Christian book store. Since I’ve been getting into my Bible study I thought I
could grab a few items to help. I found a book so big you could hurt someone
with it, its name is nearly as big as the book.
It’s The New Strong’s Expanded
Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. I understood why “exhaustive” is in
the title, as I dragged it to the car! I
texted my husband to warn him of the new (yet very spiritual) purchase on the
credit card. He’s not a miser, but even
if he was he could hardly be upset with me.
How much more righteous a purchase does it get! If only I could figure out how to make new
jeans godly!

I got home, dragging inside my exhausting book,
careful to not drop it on the cat. After
flicking through it, I realise I have no clue how to use this very impressive
looking book. I read the instructions
(yes it even has instructions, but no safety warnings), but I was still
lost. I need to learn how to use this concordance.
I had myself a mission, as daunting as this book looks, Bible mysteries await.

Why study the bible when our teachers do a great job
of teaching us? Beth Moore says that we
were never intended to get all our Bible study from church on Sundays. As
good as the teaching is we receive on Sunday’s, it should not be the only
source of feeding from God’s word that we get. With Jesus as our High Priest
and The Holy Spirit revealing understanding to all He indwells, we can come directly
before him and when we do we have all we need to study God’s word. And listen we
definitely don’t need a huge concordance, so don’t use that as an excuse not to
get stuck in.

What has amazed me is that when I spend time in God’s
word, only the Bible in my hands, the Holy Spirit reveals new insights to me. The Word of God is a powerful book, it’s alive and relevant in our lives. You can find
treasures daily in God’s Word even without a concordance.

I’m often confessing.
The only reason I confess to you is in case by some small miracle you can
learn from my mistakes. My confession? Okay.
Deep breath. This may not seem
like a big deal to you, but I was raised in a Christian home, I knew the right
things to do and say. I interpreted some
of the teachings very black and white. Here
goes: I thought Quiet Times were horrid! Quiet time is a discipline, so I was
told. A smack (which wasn’t illegal back
in my day) was also called discipline.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
Discipline hurt, a smack hurt, so did the fact that I deserved it. If I attached pain to discipline, it’s no
wonder quiet times became torturous. I
looked forward to them as much as a smack! I gave up on them, for many years, only
to rediscover them just recently in a new and wonderful way that was nothing of
my own doing.

I awoke one morning early, so I thought to myself, I
might as well get up and pray. It was a
strange thought to me because I love my sleep, but this morning I was refreshed
and wide awake at 6am, so I went with it.
It was ok. The next morning the
same thing happened, I was woken, was well rested and ready to go for the day,
so got up and had some time with God.
This kept happening, I realised after a few days I was praying before
bed that God would wake me up, as I was enjoying my time with him. I think this was when I got a little smug. I loved that God wanted to spend time with me
and would wake me up to do it. Then I
slept in! I was so disappointed. It made me realised, this is a relationship
that needs my input, I’m not a new born that just takes, I need to show God I’m
in this too. So to be sure I got to have
my time the next morning I put my alarm on.
Since then I have had the pleasure of time with God to start my day,
most days anyway. I’m not legalistic
about this, if something happens and children are sick or awake half the night or
I am, I don’t force myself to have a quiet time. I’d hate for a friend to ‘have to’ spend time
with me when they weren’t up for it.
Obligation friendship is no friendship at all.

Let this be in no way a guilt-trip for you. I have had seasons in my life where sleep is
limited or bordering on a luxury, so if you deal with insomnia or are Mum of
little ones, don’t take this as a guilty slap round the face, think of it as a
season to look forward to or make it your own, and create something that works
for you now.

Guilt is out, I did sporadic quiet times for years
that were based on guilt, and the difference now is monumental. Much to my
surprise I love getting up and spending time with God, it’s great, not
guilt. I’d love for you to love to get
up and spend time with the God, the God of creation, the God who made the Himalayas and tiny wee fruit flies. The God who wants to spend time with
you. Why? Because He loves you, not because He has to,
but because He wants to, and even though we will never be able to reciprocate
equally, God wants us to want to.

“In love he
predestined us to be adopted as his sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious
grace, which he has freely given us
in the One he loves. In him we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, in accordance with the riches
of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and
understanding.” (Eph 1: 5-8 NIV – emphasis mine)

There is just so much in
that passage of God’s Word. But if you only have space in your head for one
thing, let it be this; He loves you. You are His daughters (and sons), chosen. Just because it pleases Him and because He
wants to. He has lavished His grace on us, lavished! Lavished – meaning stingy? Not likely! Generous, abundant, copious,
bountiful, prolific, extravagantly, over-the-top, unrestrained, or smother
with. Do you get the picture? His love
and grace He offers to you, without restraint, because He wants to. He wants to meet with you, because He wants
to, but He wants you to want to also.
Will you think about having a chance to enjoy time with God, you set the
terms, no giant concordance necessary, and see if you have a quiet time because
you want to.

1 comment:

hey Ingy, all good stuff here. really dig what you're sharing about getting rid of guilt and finding that God is able to share himself with us in a way that intuitively causes us to want more. i'm definitely into wanting to want to enjoy Him and time with him. thanks for sharing. Ruth :)